The format of this book enables the student in spanish to understand being bilingual on the part of the communicative process; that of being bicultural is an indispensable element. The text tunes the learner, at the advanced level, by introducing the communicative performance taking into consideration the spanish dialectal variations into some cultural aspects of the traditional and contemporary systems of latin american societies. The book applies a practical approach to learning spanish as a foreign language by focusing on most latin american countries culture with specific topics: family, social stratification, politics, religion, the position of women, transportation problems, drugs and trafficking, traditional healers, the concept of time, the social stratification of language, the life of some indigenous cultures in the high Andes and in the deep jungles, students visiting a foreign country, in addition to some other topics of interest. Each chapter starts with an ethnographic description of some cultural aspects of a geographical area and its people. Some cultural aspects are suggested to participate on discussions related to the chapter. The student is asked to translate simple sentences into spanish. The verbal interaction among the people in the described area is reflected in the dialectal variations collected, which leads to questions to measure the students comprehension level. Cultural notes are explained at the end of each chapter.

Press clippings from major American, European and Latin American newspapers.

In this book Arturo Almandoz places the major episodes of Latin America’s twentieth and early twenty-first century urban history within the changing relationship between industrialization and urbanization, modernization and development. This relationship began in the early twentieth century, when industrialization and urbanization became significant in the region, and ends at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when new tensions between liberal globalization and populist nationalism challenge development in the subcontinent, much of which is still poverty stricken. Latin America’s twentieth-century modernization and development are closely related to nineteenth-century ideals of progress and civilization, and for this reason Almandoz opens with a brief review of that legacy for the different countries that are the focus of his book – Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela – but with references to others. He then explores the regional distortions, which resulted from the interaction between industrialization and urbanization, and how the imbalance between urbanization and the productive system helps to explain why ‘take-off’ was not followed by the ‘drive to maturity’ in Latin American countries. He suggests that the close yet troublesome relationship with the United States, the recurrence of dictatorships and autocratic regimes, and Marxist influences in many domains, are all factors that explain Latin America’s stagnation and underdevelopment up to the so-called ‘lost decade’ of 1980s. He shows how Latin America’s fate changed in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, when neoliberal programmes, political compromise and constitutional reform dismantled the traditional model of the corporate state and centralized planning. He reveals how economic growth and social improvements have been attained by politically left-wing yet economically open-market countries while others have resumed populism and state intervention. All these trends make up the complex scenario for the new century – especially when considered against the background of vibrant metropolises that are the main actors in the book.

Con la visita del Presidente Hu Jintao en noviembre de 2004 a América Latina, China hizo saber al resto del mundo su creciente interés por la región. El avance hacia el así llamado “patio trasero” de Estados Unidos generó preocupación en el círculo político de ese país, ya que este movimiento podría desafiar la primacía norteamericana en el hemisferio occidental. Algunos analistas, sin embargo, ven el noviazgo de China con América Latina como algo natural debido a su necesidad largoplacista de commodities y soluciones en materia energética. La presencia de China en el hemisferio occidental presenta una exposición reveladora y multidisciplinaria de esta relación triangular, así como también las motivaciones que subyacen a cada uno de los implicados. Con ese objetivo, expertos de América Latina, China, Europa y los Estados Unidos reflexionan acerca de las ramificaciones del surgimiento de China como potencia mundial. A lo largo de los capítulos se compagina un marco para anticipar aspectos relacionados con la seguridad en materia económica y energética en la relación entre China y América Latina. Este informado análisis de la política desplegada por China en el hemisferio provee al lector de un panorama exhaustivo, centrándose en un aspecto particularmente sensible de su pacífico ascenso.